by Vivek Ahuja
It was almost impossible to hear the other side amidst the thunderclaps of exploding shells. Krishnan took the radio speaker:
“Foxtrot-One, Foxtrot-One, this is -Two. We are under heavy fire from Chinese indirect tube artillery! Requesting priority counter-battery fire-support! Over!”
“Roger! Foxtrot-One copies all! We are getting hit over here pretty bad too! Stand-by!” Nath replied.
At his end, Nath handed back the radio to his signals officer and turned to face a Major who was on another radio-set talking to the commander of the battery of field guns responsible for providing indirect fire-support for this sector. The Major was not too happy at what he was hearing and looked back at Nath and shook his head.
“Sir, the battery is in bad shape! They just got hit by Chinese MBRL rocket fire!”
Nath’s facial expression now turned red with anger as he stormed over to snatch the radio away from the Major before shouting into it as a cloud of dirt fell on them from a nearby explosion of a Chinese shell:
“What the hell is going on out there? I have men getting hit with Chinese shelling and you are telling me we cannot respond?!”
There was more static on the radio as another shell slammed into a bunch of rocks nearby, shattering them to rubble and showering everybody nearby...
Nath got back on his feet inside the trench and cleared the radio set of dust and gravel before grabbing the speaker again:
“Hello? Quebec-One, do you read my last?”
“Roger! Quebec-One copies all! Sir, we just got hammered by a Chinese long-range MLRS barrage and have taken serious damage to my guns and the crews manning them. I am down to sixty percent manpower and less than thirty percent equipment levels here. My gun-crews are working as fast as they can to get the remaining guns back into action but they cannot work faster than they currently are!”
“God damn it!” Nath threw the radio speaker against the wall of the trench in frustration before turning to face his second-in-command:
“Where’s that Pinaka MBRL battery?”
“The Divisional MBRL battery?” the Major asked in surprise.
“Yes, damn it! Where is it? Is it still operational?” Nath thundered.
“Walong, sir. But that has not been deputed to us yet.”
“Doesn’t matter now. Colonel Malik is dead and Brigade and Divisional CPs are non-responsive. If somebody up the ladder wants to object, we will deal with it later. For now I am the senior officer present. Contact the battery commander and inform him of our situation. Then contact our sister battalions and ask them what they need in terms of support. I am pretty sure they are in a similar situation as us. Go!”
The Major ran along the trench to the other NCOs from the signals group at the command center and got to work. The company commander whose men were guarding this headquarters ran over to Nath and both men cowered as several shells slammed nearby and shredded tree trunks near the roots, causing large branches to fall above the trenches. When he pulled himself up from the floor of the trench, Nath spat out some dirt that had entered his mouth. He pulled the Captain nearby to his feet as well.
“What do you need boy?”
“Orders, sir?” the young man said as he wiped the dirt from his face and the underside of his helmet. Nath grunted amusedly.
“Did something make you think that our plans have changed? The orders stand. We will hold our ground! Help is on the way!”
EASTERN BANK OF THE LOHIT RIVER
SOUTHEAST OF WALONG
ARUNACHAL PRADESH
DAY 1 + 0825 HRS
North of Walong, the valley down from the border was more or less a straight line. The morning rays of sunlight had yet to penetrate the valley, but the tips of the snowcapped Himalayas were now glowing under the morning sun. Inside the valleys, the fog was still persistent. And where there should have been serenity, there was now manmade thunder. The first morning of the war had started in earnest after a night of chaos and confusion...
Lieutenant-Colonel Mohan jumped out of his AXE utility vehicle he had drove in on along the single lane road from Walong. He walked down to the edge of the rocky banks of the Lohit River and stared north. Behind him three Tatra Kolos launcher vehicles were rumbling over lose gravel and towards a flat patch of ground to the east. Further north, a single Weapon Locating Radar or WLR system was silently and actively monitoring the Chinese artillery and rocket fire. With each falling shell and each rocket being launched in that sector, Mohan’s WLR crew managed a better fix on the origin of those trajectories. And at the base of those trajectories had to be the Chinese field guns and MBRL vehicles.
While the WLR crew estimated and fixed the Chinese artillery units, Mohan’s battery command and control teams were at work inside several camouflaged trailers that had been placed among the thick foliage of the region south of Walong.
As the ground under his feet shook and vibrated, Mohan appreciated the sheer firepower the Chinese 13TH Group Army was throwing at the Indian defenses at the moment.
They tried to take me out too…
It had been obvious to him and the 2ND Mountain Division commander that the enemy would try to put his unit of commission as soon as any ground conflagration started. And the Chinese had indeed tried their best to try and catch the MBRL Group off guard alongside the rest of their cruise-missile targets.
But Mohan was no fool. He knew the Chinese had been monitoring the location and movement of his unit’s vehicles for weeks before the actual attack a few hours ago. They had probably been using everything down from local informers in the region to high tech satellites to get an accurate description of the disposition of his unit.
And so the simple solution had been to move the vehicles of his battery every hour to a new location. And it had delivered according to his expectations. When the cruise-missile aimed for his unit slammed into an empty patch of land, two kilometers north, Mohan and his staff had shared a brief moment of glee in an otherwise miserable night.
And now it’s our turn…
Mohan heard his radioman shout out to him from the back of his parked vehicle. He turned back to see the three Pinaka launch vehicles now dispersed and deployed out on the large field, silent and deadly. He walked over to the radioman to receive the call from his staff that had been coordinating with Lieutenant-Colonel Nath. Mohan had enough confidence in the professional ability of his men to know when he was not needed around.
But now he was needed to take the next steps…
He nodded at his signals NCO sitting inside the vehicle. The NCO switched radio frequencies until all vehicle crews in his command could listen in. When he got the all-clear from his NCO, Mohan picked up the radio speaker and brought it near his mouth.
“All Baker elements, this is Baker-Actual. A few hours ago the Chinese launched an attack on this country and this unit using massive salvoes of cruise-missiles. Now they have started the ground war along our borders! This aggression will not be allowed to stand. They failed in their attempts to eliminate this battery before the ground war started. The battle has begun, and we are still alive. Now it’s our turn to return the favor, and unlike the red bastards attacking our country, we shall not fail. No mercy is to be shown or given!
“Commence Fire!”
The three Pinaka launchers now adjusted pod elevation and azimuth based on the data coming in from the northern WLR crew. The vehicle’s own sensors had already established outside atmospheric conditions that would affect the flight of the rockets and had compensated for it. The crewmen inside the sealed front cabin of the launchers had now fixed the data within seconds of the orders coming in. They now switched the launch mode to “Ripple” for the twelve rounds on each launcher. Finally, on command from the battery C3I control, they depressed the launch button and the vehicle cabin shuddered.
Outside, the vehicle was already enveloped in a cloud of smoke. Above the smoke cloud were streaks of light that were racing across the cloudy early morning sky...
NORTH OF THE MCMAHON LINE
DAY 1 + 0850 HRS
The Indian attack was unexpected and the damage was catastrophic. The three Pinaka vehicles had each targeted one Chinese field battery and one of them had split its rockets between a field gun battery and a Chinese MBRL battery that had hit the Indian guns under Lieutenant-Colonel Nath’s command. These Chinese batteries had been well dispersed so that a general attack could not suppress all of them at once, but since an entire Pinaka launcher was now directed against them, there was sufficient concentrated firepower and sophisticated precision within the twelve rockets of each launcher to wipe out these batteries as a whole.
And they delivered as advertised.
A few hundred feet above ground the twelve rockets from each launcher dispersed the smaller sub-munitions that carpeted a large tract of ground underneath them. With ripple fire inbounds, once the first rocket appeared over the Chinese guns, it was all over in just as many seconds as it had taken between the first and last rocket release for each launcher. A massive crumbling noise echoed the valley as hundreds of sub-munitions scattered red-hot shrapnel all over the Chinese field guns and their crews. Sympathetic explosions added to the devastation. By the time the last rocket from each launcher appeared over the target, the ground below was one big cloud of smoke...
HILLS NORTH OF WALONG
ARUNACHAL PRADESH
DAY 1 + 0851 HRS
It stopped just as abruptly as it had started.
The last shells slammed into the hillside before the frightening howl of the incoming shells stopped. It took several minutes before the echoing noises receded and some more minutes before the ringing in the ears of the Indian soldiers receded.
Major Krishnan stood up from his trench and dusted off his uniform and weapon as he looked around to check the status of the other soldiers. He wasn’t taking any chances. It was possible that the halt in the attack was a feint designed to draw the victims out in the open to tend to the wounded only to be caught in a renewed round of shelling. But after several minutes of silence it was clear to Krishnan that something else had changed his fortunes for the better...
EASTERN BANK OF THE LOHIT RIVER
NORTHEAST OF WALONG
ARUNACHAL PRADESH
DAY 1 + 0855 HRS
Lt-Colonel Mohan noticed with satisfaction that the ground under his feet had stopped vibrating and the thunder from the north had died away abruptly. His WLR crews had confirmed that all assigned targets had been terminated.
But the battle had only begun.
His deadly strikes had warned the Chinese that he was still around and as lethal as ever. And such arrogance was unlikely to go unpunished by the Chinese. Mohan walked back to his AXE utility vehicle and sat down in the front seat as his driver pulled back on to the road back to Walong with a swerve. Behind him the three Pinaka launchers were already beginning to move out while their crews considered their next location, next reload and next attack...
HILLS NORTH OF WALONG
ARUNACHAL PRADESH
DAY 1 + 0930 HRS
Lieutenant-Colonel Nath was also busy formulating his next movement plans. While his officers and men deployed to the north were relieved to have ridden themselves free from the Chinese fire, it was only temporary. The Chinese north of Walong would be on guard now that their artillery support had been decimated instantly by the superior and concentrated firepower of the Indian MBRL forces near Walong. But it was not enough to stop them. Not yet anyway. Their ground forces had not even been unleashed yet. Artillery support or not, they would make a run for Walong, as they had done in 1962. And Nath, Krishnan, Mohan and the other battalion commanders in the region had to stop them.
Contact had been re-established with the Brigade HQ at Walong in the last half hour. The news was not pleasant. The HQ had taken a brutal attack and had been mauled. Colonel Malik had been over there when the attacks had taken place and had been killed along with the Brigade commander. Most of the staff officers there had been wounded to some degree or the other and their ability to provide the crucial administration control over the Brigade was minimal at this time.
Nath had been acting as the ad-hoc commander for the battalion for some time now, and unfortunately that would have to continue until the new Brigade CO arrived. As the sunlight began penetrating deeper into the beautiful valleys of the Walong sector, Lieutenant-Colonel Nath found himself commanding the Indian side in what was essentially the Second Battle of Walong...
SKIES ABOVE MADHYA-PRADESH
DAY 1 + 1100 HRS
“All right people, let’s get started here.”
Defense-Minister Chakri said as he settled into his seat. There were four Tele-Conference-Display or TCD screens in front that allowed him to conduct his briefing with important people not inside the room. At the moment that meant the senior military commanders. The Home-Minister also walked inside the room a few moments later. The PM was not present as he had just finished his personal meetings with Chakri and the Home-Minister. In that meeting Chakri had explained his strategic level plans for retaliation against the Chinese air and land aggressions.
At the tactical levels however, the response strategy was currently far from clear. This was due to a variety of reasons. Firstly the damage to the communications in the northeast was still under repair. New commanders were replacing dead or wounded ones and only now were these decapitated units recovering from the initial attacks. Secondly, the reports of Chinese ground offensives were unclear. Then there was the issue of retaliation.
This meeting should clear that up…
Chakri thought as he pulled his chair closer to the table. Three of the four TCD screens lit up immediately to announce that the meeting was beginning. There were now three senior commanders visible on the screens: General Yadav, Lieutenant-General Suman and Air-Chief-Marshal Naidu. Chakri started off the briefing once all three men confirmed audio and video at their ends.
“I know we have had a hell of a morning so far, but just so we are on the same page, let’s have a recap. General Yadav?” Chakri said and then lay back in his chair. The fourth screen shifted to show a digital map of the current situation in the Northeast.
“Region wise speaking, we have four sectors of the land border with China. These being in Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Uttarakhand and Ladakh moving east to west. As of 1030 hours there have been no aggressive activities from the Chinese in Uttarakhand and Ladakh, although the latter sector will open up by the end of the day today as per our predictions. Near Sikkim we are detecting significant movement of enemy forces that suggest the front will open up in the next few hours. The Arunachal sector has already opened up.
“Following up the missile attacks, this morning the Chinese opened up with heavy artillery fire along most of the border positions in the Arunachal region, specifically the Lohit, Upper Subansiri and Tawang Districts. Our forces responded as best as they could under the circumstances and in several sectors were able to defeat, or currently in the process of defeating, the Chinese using available long-range artillery systems. This action is ongoing as we speak. DIPAC detected further Chinese activity in central China which suggests further Chinese cruise-missile strikes later today,” Yadav concluded. Chakri spoke up after a few seconds of absorbing what had been said.
“General Yadav. What Chinese units are we facing in these sectors?”
“One PLA Group Army assembling in the Aksai Chin and one north of Arunachal Pradesh. Two Division plus forces are in the Chumbi valley opposite Sikkim. Plus two more Divisions deployed south of Lhasa. We are not sure what their intentions are,” Yadav said impassively.
“And why is that?” Chakri queried.
“Because they are not moving. We are not sure why. One theory is that they could be earmarked for an invasion of Bhutan,” Yadav offered.
“Bhutan?” Chakri said in surprise.
“Yes sir. The Chinese may attempt to use Bhutan as an entry point to strategically outflank our forces in the Tawang s
ector from the west and to beef up their forces in the Chumbi valley and deny us that route,” Suman added his speculations to the mix.
“But Bhutan is sovereign nation. Why on earth would Beijing be looking to invade them?”
“Perhaps because they don’t see it the same way as we do? We know the Bhutanese government has been taking a lot of flak from Beijing on the whole Tibetan revolt issue. If this entire war is meant to be a repeat of 1962 in their minds, they might want to threaten Bhutan into taking a harder line against the Tibetans as well. Add to this our defense treaties with the Bhutanese and you can see why Bhutan could be dragged by Beijing into this war,” Yadav added. Chakri stayed silent and focused in his thoughts.
“It may make sense to talk to them at some point about this?” Suman added.
“Who? The Bhutanese?” Yadav asked.
“Yes. If there is a threat to their sovereignty, they have a right to know about it beforehand.”
“But we don’t know that there is indeed a threat. It’s just a theory at this point,” Yadav countered. Chakri re-entered the conversation.
“General Yadav, let’s try and confirm that theory as soon as possible. For the time being let’s concentrate on the more pressing issues. Now. Tell me about operation Snow-Thunder...”
EAST OF DIRANG
WESTERN ARUNACHAL PRADESH
DAY 1 + 1540 HRS
The soldiers were busy removing the snow-camo netting over the two vehicles. They were parked on a grassy clearing on the eastern bank of the frozen Khouma River. The road from Bomdi-la to Dirang to Se-La and then to Tawang was parallel to the river along this section. And the soldiers on this side of the river bank could see convoys of trucks moving through the slight snowfall to Tawang. The personnel of this particular unit, however, were busy with their own little war.
